Saturday, June 23, 2007

Jamestown book

I recently began a bibliography of books about Jamestown in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony. Virginia celebrated in a big way, and many books came out in 2006 and 2007 in step with the anniversary.

This book, published by National Geographic, was one of the books I wanted to get my hands on as soon as I heard about it, but I just found it last week at my local library. I have read a lot of nonfiction books about Jamestown. Many of them have good information but were old and unappealing. What I love about this book is that it is packed full of fantastic historical information, but it is very appealing to read.

Since National Geographic is the publisher, one would expect nothing short of stunning photography. And this book delivers. The photography is the best I have ever seen of Jamestown. In fact, even if I didn’t love the information presented, I would buy this book just for the pictures. Some of the pictures are from the NPS historic site, but most of the pictures are from the living history museum with people in costume. You can actually visit the living history museum at Jamestown and see the same things on any given day. The pictures of the archeological digs have great details and bring the findings up close for students.

The text in this book is some of the best I have read about Jamestown. It is full of interesting and unusual details, but at the same time, it gives all of the important information that students must know. The captions for each picture give extra information too. This is a must have for classrooms and libraries. So far, my favorite nonfiction book about Jamestown.